While there are many excellent specialty organizing products out there (including our own!), don't always feel like you have to trek down to a specialty store to get organized… there are plenty of household items you have around already! Here are my top five favorites:
- Rubber bands. I was just sorting some map colors with my son for a project, and we used rubber bands to group the colors and types that we needed to keep together. Use them anytime you need to group objects together in a drawer, box, or purse. Stacks of business cards, postcards, pens, markers, and even large stacks of paper can be handled with rubber bands.
Cable ties. In large and small sizes and various colors… these are great for gathering up cables and cords under a desk or behind furniture, cinching up something, or even quickly repairing something. I like to use cable ties to reinforce those wire storage cubes you can buy a discount stores (see photo of Whitmor storage cubes here from Amazon.com).
- Binder clips. I have written entire blog posts just about these (see "Ode to Binder Clips"), as I have realized they go way beyond their obvious use for stacks of paper. I use them as a handy way to label thin or otherwise difficult surfaces, like the wire storage cubes mentioned above, paper trays, or thin shelves. The medium-sized black ones are the perfect size to fit my 1/2" label tape on the back side, and I just clip them right on. Sometimes I remove the chrome pieces from them if the label is going to be fairly permanent– it looks nicer that way.
- Zip-closure plastic bags. Most households probably have these in snack-, sandwich-, quart-, and gallon-size bags. I keep these around in a few more sizes. I love the 2-gallon-size (easily found at grocery stores), and Ziploc also makes much larger ones you can get at discount stores that can hold a sleeping bag or other large gear. I even have some tiny jewelry-size zippered bags that a client ordered from a shipping products company, which are great for jewelry and medications. I use all of these various sizes for sorting clothing, carrying makeup, packing suitcases, keeping small game and toy pieces together, sealing up leak-prone things that might damage other items in a box, storing puzzles, and probably an infinite number of other uses.
- Hooks/Nails/Screws. You want to use your wall space to its best capacity– I always find forgotten storage space in clients' homes this way. You can use a hook or a nail on a tiny little bit of real estate of a closet wall, and suddenly that floppy hat or large purse is out of the way. You can install a large-headed screw on the back of a cabinet door (careful not to screw completely through the door!) to hold a cutting board. You can hang up brooms, mops, and dustpans, and you can put a pot-holder right where you need one. Even if you don't have tools handy, you can get the easy removable adhesive hooks that are available now– I always keep various sizes of those around in my junk drawer.
There are so many other items that didn't make this list, like 3-ring binders, shoeboxes… I could go on and on. What are your favorite household organizing items? Share in the comments!
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Ziplocks and plastic ware are my fave! I have clients get out their plastic ware for drawer dividers!
In addition to all the things you mentioned, I’ll add a couple.
All kinds of boxes: from Velveeta, greeting cards, shoes, and many other things.
Cans: from coffee, fruits & veggies (just be sure there are no sharp edges).
I love shoe boxes and hanging all kinds of things from hangers. I even wrapped christmas lights around a plastic tube hanger to keep it from getting tangled.
I use elastics to keep food boxes closed. Where I live veggies like broccoli come tied with velcro like ties which are free and can be used like cable ties.R
educe,reuse, recycle
For years now I have used Ziploc bags to store extension, telephone and cable cords; strings of Christmas lights, face plates and their screws removed for painting walls..the list is endless. I *love* my Ziplocs!
For me, it’s those plastic “shoe box” cases — I have stacks of them in the closet and garage, each with a carefully printed labels. And for my pantry, it’s “canning” jars of all sizes. If the standard size isn’t appropriate, I cover boxes with the prettiest contact paper I can find cheap and use them.
Thanks for a neat post —
I’m another one who uses hangers to keep items neat in my spare closet. Rolls of ribbons can be hung on pants hangers that you get from the dry cleaner (remove one side of the cardboard tube, string the ribbon spools and reinsert). I also hang tablecloths to prevent wrinkles.
I Iike to use the little plastic baby food containers that have a plastic top on them. They work great for storing
paper clips, and other small items in my desk drawer.
I saved the colorful lids that are put on spray cans and then bought a small rectangle shaped plastic tub and put the lids in. Six fit perfectly. I use them to keep all sorts of small items orderly.
i use shoe boxes as drawer dividers for my socks – one for bulky work socks, one for ordinary socks, one for running socks and then a shoe box lid on top for knee highs and those tiny little footlets; plus a beautiful organdy drawstring bag with lavender in the seams for my good hosiery. I use old shoeboxes from when my daughter had little feet as in-drawer containers for costume jewellery.
I’m just so excited to learn that you have a junk drawer, too! Can we see pics? 🙂
Where can i donate used Xmas Cards?
Hi Betty. I know that St. Jude’s Ranch for Children at one time had a greeting card recycling program. You might want to check with them to see if the program is still active: http://www.stjudesranch.org/help_card.php.